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Jason's blog

A very interesting article on how there's a rebound in computer science majors.. But not by very much. The article shows:

Fall 2005 -> 7,952
Fall 2006 -> 7,840
Fall 2007 -> 7,915

So is it on the rise? That still remains to be scene. But I'll go out on a limb here and say that it actually isn't increasing. I'm only saying that because of the other issues that are beginning to crop up in the process of scouting and hiring potential candidates for a job.

Experience is beginning to be a factor. You can go through a CS degree and do co-op, but there are still many people that don't get jobs because they lack experience. They may not get a job in their first and second runs at co-op. Their hopes of getting a job in the final runs at co-op are slim. Most give up, some even change majors.

Well it was clear that what was really holding me back was that damn job! As soon as I left, I was able to really get down to the business of writing and experiment running. I have to admit I didn’t hate my job. I just hated my hours. I worked too many hours for the money they were paying, and I wasn’t learning anything from the work. It was the basic same stuff over and over, and I began to grow unhappy with the work. Essentially, there was no growth potential, and I saw it coming.

Since I left the job at the end of the year, I really buckled down and did a great deal of work on my thesis and on my research. I didn’t need money that badly because I’d saved up quite a bit from when I was working. I’ve found the true value of being able to work on research without the distractions of trying to survive financially. Just a reminder to you students who are going into graduate studies, know where your money/funding is coming from! I cannot stress that enough. Working part time (in industry) and researching sucks more than you can imagine.

Now that I no long have distractions to get in the way, I'm going to be finishing my thesis. Not much more I can say about that. Pay my tuition, finish my thesis, defend, and get the hell out.

Now that I'm not working, the longer I'm in school, the longer I'm out of work, the longer I'm in debt. I won't tolerate being treated like I don't matter simply because I'm not on campus anymore, simply because I'm a part time student, simply because I've been around since Sept. '05.

To be quite honest, I have not taken a photo in close to six weeks! What’s going on with me?! I just have not been inspired by anything. The colours in the winter are very bland, and it has just been so cold out that I’m scared to venture very far from my house to go out shooting. Maybe it’s because I’m not a big fan of snow. Looking at snow is not very exciting, nor is it very vibrant. I’ll need to get back into it as a form of artistic expression.

As some of you may know, I left my job as lead developer at the company where I worked. I liked flexing my creative muscles there, but now that I will not be building websites anymore, I’ll need to put my creativity into another avenue. Enter photography. It’s still something I enjoy doing very much, and I haven’t logged into my flickr account in a very long time.